Starbucks Thailand Tells Teachers "Order More Coffee Or Get Lost"

[dude007]

Can we in turn write a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop serving overpriced garbage?

whoooaaaaah!!!! The best quotation of the day!

[dude007]

Well done Starbucks, but who and how will they enforce it in a country where you wouldn't dare offend anyone?

By a chrono and a loud bell telling everyone that his time is over... all automised of course so that no one have to get red cheeks unless the offender himself!

[Jessi]

I have not been in a SB for over 10 years, tasted their coffee once that was enough for me. Just over priced crap coffee.

I had an email from a friend that just returned to the U.S. & he cant understand how S.B. can be more expensive in Thailand than the U.S.

Can anyone confirm this?

[gaucho]

for a start i am not a fan of starbucks ,........but i support this 100% im sure they dont mind if its slack time but not at peak times ...be fair on this ok ...they r losing money because some one is just using up space ...similar thing happened with mcdonalds in sydney ...people used to park go in buy a coffee ,and then get on a bus and go into the city to work , returning 8 to 10 hours later ...cmom <deleted> ...try this shxxxxt in say paris and see what happens and the fact that u may or may not like the coffee is irrelevant ps go gloria jeans

[Screws]

Teacher should tell Starbucks, "When you start to sell coffee, I'll order one."

Maccas (MacCafe) is one of the best lattes in Thailand - currently 49bht - but in China best is Starbucks.

[bangkok101]

How can this be enforced? Are they going to call the police? If there is no official allocated time for drinking your coffee i really don't see how anyone could be evicted.

its called a "cover charge". Minimum purchase required to use the facility, or otherwise it is trespass.

[techboy]

Can we in turn write a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop serving overpriced garbage?

Well said!

= Check stock ticker SBUX. A lot of folks must like that "overpriced garbage" for its stock price to be up almost 50% in a year! You boys are in a proven minority. I sure don't like that they have cut back on the measure in their brew and are kicking students out but I sure do like that I drank a bunch of their stock in 2011

[GeeWee]

i drink my cappucino at Benjamin Coffee, on the market Soi Buakhao, Pattaya for only 45 bath for a large one and it is much better than the stuff Starbucks sells and there is also free wifi.

Edited July 25, 2012 by GeeWee

[Billmont]

When my wife and I go to the Mall in Korat I head for Starbucks while my wife brouses the shops for about 30 minutes. I order a water @ 15 Baht and read one of the free Newspapers they supply, either Bangkok Post or The Nation for us Farangs. My wife then comes and has a fancy coffee of some sort and as soon as she finishes we go for lunch. I find Starbucks to be great, very pleasant and smiling staff and sometimes they even cut up some cake into small pieces and walk around the shop offering everyone a piece, even me with my 15 Baht water. WiFi is not free. Also the seating is clean and comfortable. I have not seen any abuse as previously mentioned but then again I go there early about 11am and leave by 11.45am. Well done Starbucks.

[psmiller]

I assume they are talking about English tutors....why then write a sign in Thai?

[stiggy]

lost count of how many restaurants and coffee houses that I have had to walk away from as no seats.

Normally due to 1 table one person on skype , nursing a water for two hours.

It makes perfect business sense to me, nothing worse than lunching or having a coffee for business or RandR with a skype conversation being belted out next to you.

Good on Starbucks, as for the teachers does a coffee shop really provide the best learning environment ?

[khunano]

Not that I would care about Starbucks, I was there one time only - the 1st, the only and the last time - but it is common sense that with a business set up at a (usually) expensive location you need to do quite a bit of turnover to get a return on investment. Obviously you will not be able to achieve this goal with patrons sipping on just one (cold) coffee for several hours.

[KanchanGav]

Awesome. Anytime teachers get in trouble and more importantly, learning stops, its a good day for mankind. These teachers working hard trying to do good and make ends meet make me sick, how dare they take advantage of a multi-billion dollar company.

Really? So, if you owned a coffee shop and had teachers in your shop with 4 or 5 students for a few hours at a time, occupying almost half the entire floor space, turning paying customers away due to lack of room and paying for this privilege by buying perhaps 1 coffee in all that time, you'd be ok with it?

Teachers who think this kind of behaviour is acceptable should re-think their profession IMO. What kind of message are they putting out to their students? That it's OK to take advantage of a business? That it's fine to freeload?

Yes, Starbucks is a multi-billion dollar company but that isn't the point. If this kind of thing happened in EVERY starbucks across the world then Starbucks would very soon be a multi-zero dollar company.

[Screws]

i drink my cappucino at Benjamin Coffee, on the market Soi Buakhao, Pattaya for only 45 bath for a large one and it is much better than the stuff Starbucks sells and there is also free wifi.

Benjamit

[Baloo22]

How can this be enforced? Are they going to call the police? If there is no official allocated time for drinking your coffee i really don't see how anyone could be evicted.

It's a private business. They can tell you to get out anytime they want. I say "Good for Starbucks!" It's a business selling it's product to those that want to buy and consume that product. It's not in the business of providing free air-conditioned tutoring space or study space to free-loaders.

[jambodave]

How can this be enforced? Are they going to call the police? If there is no official allocated time for drinking your coffee i really don't see how anyone could be evicted.

Easy just them to sling their hook.

[Screws]

When my wife and I go to the Mall in Korat I head for Starbucks while my wife brouses the shops for about 30 minutes. I order a water @ 15 Baht and read one of the free Newspapers they supply, either Bangkok Post or The Nation for us Farangs. My wife then comes and has a fancy coffee of some sort and as soon as she finishes we go for lunch. I find Starbucks to be great, very pleasant and smiling staff and sometimes they even cut up some cake into small pieces and walk around the shop offering everyone a piece, even me with my 15 Baht water. WiFi is not free. Also the seating is clean and comfortable. I have not seen any abuse as previously mentioned but then again I go there early about 11am and leave by 11.45am. Well done Starbucks.

They have let the Pattaya store (cnr Soi 13/2?) go to the dogs tho. Used to be nice, years ago -

[wannascuba]

Those D_rn TEFLers again . On the bright side, maybe they will all go to Mcdonalds and get FAt on Burgers and Chips

[Peppy]

I assume they are talking about English tutors....why then write a sign in Thai?

I think you've assumed wrong... this is Thailand after all, and most tutors are Thai. (Who woulda thunk it?) And they give lessons in all kinds of subjects, not just English.

[winniepooh]

Starbucks taste awful. Our local 7/11 store at Chokchai 4 have now a little coffee counter and make better coffee than Starbucks does in many years to come.

[oki]

Great NEWS & well done!

CONGRATULATION!

[Unkomoncents]

This a problem for any business that offers well-priced drinks and has a relatively comfortable, air-conditioned area for patrons. It's an obnoxious feature of life in a country where there is no law/rule enforcement (another poster questioned how they will enforce this ban; good question. They can ask people to leave, and those people will just say "no". Then what?). Teachers/tutors are far less frequently the chief violators than people who don't even bother to buy ANYTHING, but still sit for hours. Scores of students and adult patrons of the air-condition McDonald's and other stores in every major mall/Tesco/Big C buy a single ice-cream or a soda and just vegetate, their current location being far more comfortable than their home. Tutors are conspicuous, so they are easy to blame. This problem goes way beyond the occasional farang/Thai language tutor though. Good for Starbucks. Hard to see how this will work, however. Especially when the notice in question is all in Thai.

[virtualtraveller]

Frankly I have no sympathy for Starbucks. Their coffee is hugely overpriced and their wifi aint free. For 100baht a shot I would also expect to sit there for hours.

[JurgenG]

How can this be enforced? Are they going to call the police? If there is no official allocated time for drinking your coffee i really don't see how anyone could be evicted.

In some places customers are informed that drink will automatically be re order every 30 mn.

There was a thread about this subject a while ago in Pantip (Thai forum), someone complaining for being ejected for staying too long (not in Starbuck, in an other local coffee shop). The great majority of the replies were in favor of the coffee shop.

A point to note is companies usually replies to complain posted in Pantip. I remember a thread about the size of the scoop in Swensen's, Swensen's took the time to reply and to explain their policy in details. Pantip is really a goldmine of information and discussion about local issues, unfortunately only in Thai. It's a shame that TV can't reproduce the same success in English.

Edited July 25, 2012 by JurgenG

[seasia]

An efficient money making machine.

Decent coffee secondary to that purpose.

[wannascuba]

Like many have voiced here, I think StarBucks is overpriced for what it is. But they have somehow confinced the "masses" to give up their cash for a fancey cup of coffee!! I doubt this new policy will change that much.

[phantomfiddler]

Totally agree ! The 2 worst cups of coffee I have ever had were from a starbucks in Bangkok and a starbucks in Chengdu, China. I could detect no trace of coffee in either tasteless and expensive cup. Something has to be going on shenannigans wise, but never again.

Can we in turn write a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop serving overpriced garbage?

[bridge2bridge]

Starbucks sells OVERPRICED coffee anyhow.

Would rather go to a shopping centre coffee shop for 35 baht.

[edwardandtubs]

The Tesco staff are too meek to enforce the 10 items or less rule so don't expect the Starbucks staff to enforce this rule.

[Morakot]

Can we in turn write a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop serving overpriced garbage?

Well said!

= Check stock ticker SBUX. A lot of folks must like that "overpriced garbage" for its stock price to be up almost 50% in a year! You boys are in a proven minority.

Fully agree: Garbage sells, we know that.

It's neither an indicator for quality, nor for CSR.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Morakot